Ancients Reborn: Dawn of a Daughter
by Dragon Courage
Summary: Sterra is a young elf on the elf police force at the time of the purging, the killing of all police for supposed treason she and others escape and join the rebels, but all is not always as it appears. nothing like artemis fowl, except for the elf thing and the police- on hiatus unless i get some reviews or something in favor of the dragon's voice which is more popular
1. Chapter 1

+Sterra Marlyn stood four feet six centimeters tall. She weighed seventy-two point three pounds and had a baby face, despite her fifteen , despite her fifteen years, Sterra was flat chested. She looked the same as she had when she was eleven. Her hair color was a surprising light auburn. Her eyes were also surprising in the fact that they were amber gold. The color of her hair and eyes were surprising due to the fact that she was an elf. Most elves had either black or blond hair, never red or brown. They almost always had vivid eye colors, such as hot pink, amethyst purple, ruby red, sapphire blue, or emerald green. In the human world, she would have been a beauty, but in the elven dimension of Faen she was an oddity, and a pitiful one at that. Like all elves she had a fair complexion and pale skin tone. Not like all elves, her ears were only two inches long. Most elves' ears were four to five inches long. Not Sterra, her ears marked her as even more immature than the rest of her. Often, elves date maturity when the ears are a good four inches long.

She was seeing all this as she gazed in the mirror of her bathroom. She wasn't embarrassed by her looks. She was proud of them, as proud as she was of the badge she now pinned to her chest. She was a young police officer in the Faen Force. The Faen Force kept peace in the lands of Faen and in the fair city of Faen itself. Or, at least, the Force used to. Back when the city was still fair. When King Fallin-Faen had reigned. When the fair king had reigned, all was well. Every elf had had plenty to eat and room to spare in their house for a traveling brother or sister. The royal line was immortal, unlike normal elves; so no one had thoughtth e happy times would end. Unfortunately, Fallin had died of a mysterious illness. Now, under the reign of Lord Cloint, Fallin's half mortal brother; there was poverty everywhere and homeless elves were a common sight. However, not more common than the sight of fear. As poverty had slowly infected the city, following Lord Cloint's raised taxes, so had dark elves and funks. The dark elves and funks had formed their own government in the darkening alleys of the once fair city of Faen. Common people left their homes every day at the risk of having their purses taken and their throats slit, and their homes robbed. Over time, the fair city had become a hypothetical sewer.

Stella's ears drooped, thinking of how it once was. She had lived with an overprotective mother, no father, until her mother had fallen ill the plague and passed away, when Sterra was five. Her mother had never let Sterra out into the streets much, so Sterra didn't really see much of the city the way it used to be, but she remembered enough to know how things were supposed to be. Children out playing in the streets, people talking and meeting, and merchants loudly participating in a vocal combat that, even currently, seemed to Sterra more involving and volatile than a tavern brawl.

The unit she belonged to was led by the courageous Captain Merrin Grellwyn. She was currently a rookie. Stella had begun as a city officer with her unit eight months ago. At first, her fellow officers had resented her due to her size and innocent characteristics, or at least they had until they had seen Sterra silence a tavern brawl. That shut them up. Since then she had learned to spot a thief, a knifer, and an assassin. Contrary to common belief, there were as many assaassins on the streets as there were officers in the land of Faen, though with so many not many are the best and really worth going after. During her last eight months, Sterra had shone her true strengths in city patrol. Even her captain agreed, she was born for the city units.

Sterra pulled on her boots and walked out the door of her apartment. She lived about two blocks from the station in an area called the Ferns, due to the ferns that the city failed to exterminate year after year. Sterra loved the ferns with their soft leaves and original shapes. They were also the reason she got a discount for where she lived, most elves didn't like the plants. Upon arriving at the station, Sterra saluted to her superiors and signed in her time arriving. When that was done, she walked over to the wall and stood to the left of her Mentor. Due to the immediate loss of life expectancy after taking this job, newbies, like Sterra, were assigned to a Mentor for a year. Their mentor would teach the newbies the ropes and look out for them. Until the end of the year, Sterra would stick close to her Mentor. For about ten minutes the Force stood about and waited for the stragglers to arrive, Sterra made it a habit to arrive early every day. Sterra and her Mentor, commonly known as Jacker, were assigned to the docks for morning patrol, and later, for evening patrol, they were assigned to the area known as the Bridges. The Bridges was an area threaded with dozens of canals and a couple hundred bridges.

Throughout the Docks, everything appeared normal. Dockhands were tending to the ships, captains were bellowing orders, merchants were bragging about their last haul, and thieves were lurking in the shadows. The thieves weren't very potent in this area of Faen, but they were still a hassle. The real trouble in the Docks were the merchants who tried to smuggle in untaxed items.

Sterra and Jacker's job was to check all of the recently docked ships for highly taxed items and then to check the paperwork for those items. This part was tricky, because, like all documents, the paperwork and tax receipts could be forged. Luckily for Sterra, she was very good at finding fakes, it was like she could smell them. In the time she had been on the city Force, she had found seven forged documents.

Today there were no new ships, so all Sterra and her Mentor had to do was fill out the paperwork for their morning patrol. Normally, her Mentor would fill out the paperwork, but today Jacker had Sterra fill it out herself.

"You're almost done with your newbie year, you should start filling out your own paperwork, now." Sterra thought that it was because he simply abhorred paperwork and reports. Of all the senior officers, Jacker was much like a newbie in that he was notorious for running off on another patrol, leaving the paperwork to some other hapless soul.

Evening patrol was much the same as usual. Sterra stopped three cutpurses on her own and even a minor boss. The bosses ruled the common thieves and took a share of all of their earnings in return for supposable strength in numbers. The bosses were actually connected to a major boss and the major bosses to the Crime King. No one knew the king's name, he was more of a myth than a truth, but the crime hierarchy went at least to the major bosses, and they all seemed to know one another.

Jacker caught five thieves and a cutpurse. He said, "Sterra, you need to quit showing me up, people are starting to wonder who the Mentor is around here." A minor Boss outranked any amount of thieves or cutpurses. As they were walking back along their route, after depositing the crooks at the prison, Jacker was in good spirits and night had come on in full. Sterra remained silent as he told her, for the fifth time, about how his sister was getting married in two weeks and about how large the party would be. As such, she was the one who heard it. A gentle sliding noise in the pattern of footsteps was creeping nearer. She stopped and twitched her ears and tilted her head. There was more than one swishing noise approaching and when she had stopped the tempo had increased. Ahead, Jacker had finally noticed that she had fallen behind and glanced back at her. She motioned with her eyes that something was up and tensed as she heard the tempo of the swishing increase. They were almost upon them. Jacker now, too, heard the soft swishing footsteps and his eyes widened. He took Sterra's hand, apparently they had the same idea in mind, and tensed as well. Just as the footsteps were about attack them, Sterra and Jacker leapt away down the dark street. As they ran, they heard the "ping" of metal projectiles as their assailants attempted to curtail their escape. They had just cleared a corner when Jacker cried out and clutched his leg. Glancing down, Sterra saw the throwing star embedded in his right thigh. When he began to slow down, Sterra dragged him along. Knowing the area well, Sterra took the lead, dragging Jacker along by the wrist into an alley. The alley was a dead end at first sight, but Sterra knew it better than first sight. Dragging Jacker along, Sterra leapt onto s pile of crates and, from there, onto the roof of the building at the back. On the roof, Sterra pulled Jacker through a window, into an attic. She shut the window and dragged him, for he had collapsed, into the shadows. They sat in silence for several minuted, until they were certain their persuers were long gone. Sterra crawled out from the shadows and looked out the window. Outside the night seemed as silent and serene as before. She knelt back beside Jacker and pulled the throwing star from his leg. The wound wasn't as deep as she had originally believed, just in a very vulnerable area. Jacker hissed in pain as Sterra began to clean it. Healing magic wasn't a necessary skill for an officer, but Sterra, on behalf of Nali, her caretaker since her mother had died till she was fourteen, had learned it anyway. Fourteen is considered when an elf reaches maturity. When she had cleaned and healed the wound, Sterra and Jacker sat in silence.

Finally Sterra spoke, "What was that?"

Jacker looked over at her and asked, "You seen anything you weren't supposed to recently? Like maybe some rich noble cheating on his wife or something?"

"No, not that I know of."

"Hmmmm… You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Well, I reckon we'd better get back to the station, the captain will need to know what happened." With that, Jacker stood up, testing his leg before putting any weight on it. He glanced at Sterra and said, "If you ever decide to change your line of work, my advice, be a healer. Half the elves I've seen can't heal half as quick as you."

Stella opened the window, only to stumble back in surprise at what she heard. From all around the city she heard shouts. Jacker walked over and tilted his head to better listen. Stella's blood ran cold as she recognized the voices. Her unit. Not just her unit, but all the city units. She looked over to Jacker, her eyes wide. The attack in the alley earlier wasn't centered on them, but on the entire Faen Force. "What do we do," whispered Sterra

"Not much we can do, except to go out and help," answered Jacker, as he climbed onto the rooftop.

Stella climbed out as well. Silently they traveled across the roof towards the nearest group of voices. Stella drew her baton and increased her speed as they neared the fight. In an alley, Stella spotted five robed assassins attacking three officers from another unit. As she sprinted across the roof, one of the officers fell clutching a wound in his chest. Stella leapt from the roof, Jacker by her side, into the fray. The attackers hadn't seen them coming. Stella slammed her baton into the head of one of the robed assailants and instantly knocked him out. Jacker did likewise to his victim. Already there were only three attackers left. One of the attackers turned and threw a dagger at Stella. The dagger whizzed past her ears as she dodged. She advanced forward and brought her baton to the side in a swipe that struck the offender on the nose, resulting in a spray of blood. One of the officers that had previously making a last stand clubbed Stella's victim on the head. Stella was about to go after another of the attackers when she suddenly felt an intense pain in her back. One of the two remaining assailants had stabbed her between her shoulder blades. Stella cried out and collapsed to the ground.


	2. healing wounds and mending bonds

Chapter 2

Stella heard her attacker cry out in pain as one of the other officers took him down. Jacker knelt down beside her with concern on his face. Stella struggled to sit up with gritted teeth, the pain was like a hot iron poker. Luckily the knife had missed her heart and other vitals, major veins, too. Jacker took her arm and helped her to her feet. The officers they had rescued walked up, the two supporting the injured one. They had bloodied, worried faces, but Stella managed to recognize them. The wounded one was called Kien and the other two were fraternal twins who always worked together, Maosh and Taosh. Taosh was a black headed girl while Maosh was a blond boy. They were around Stella's age, only a year older. Kien was around Jacker's age. Kien's wound wasn't as bad as Stella had originally thought. It wasn't deep, just wide. While Kien's wound had already stopped bleeding, it obviously remained painful.

Every time Sterra moved, a flower of pain blossomed between her shoulder blades. She could feel the blood trickling down her back.

Jacker took control of the situation, saying, "Follow me, we've got somewhere to regroup and heal up."

The other three officers nodded and moved to follow Jacker. Jacker supported Sterra over to the side of a building. With Jacker's help, Sterra climbed atop the roof. The twins helped Kien up onto the roof.

They made slow but steady progress to the attic that had proved to be a safe haven for Sterra and Jacker earlier. As they traveled, Sterra began to get dizzy. Her wound still hadn't stopped bleeding, it was worse than she thought. Eventually, Jacker grabbed her arm and wouldn't let go. When they got there, Sterra could barely stand. Jacker opened the door and entered to check the place out. He gave the rest of them a thumbs-up to show that the house was empty.

Once inside, Sterra tried to stand up, but her vision began to black out. Her back felt numb. She didn't notice Jacker kneeling beside her until he spoke. "Sterra, can you heal yourself?"

Only master magicians can manipulate things inside their own body, and Sterra was hardly skilled in anything more than healing. She tried to shake her head, but after the first shake, her vision almost blacked out completely. She could hear a concerned buzz from the officers from the other unit, but couldn't distinguish the voices. She heard Jacker speak to her but she only caught bits of it.

"….. Taosh is going to clean the wound…. Hold on…."

His presence comforted her, he had always protected her, and she slipped into the blissful darkness that had been waiting at the edge of her vision.

When Sterra awoke her first sense to return was her hearing. She could hear someone talking beside her. She could hear two different elves speaking. Sterra opened her eyes as she remembered where she was and what had happened. She was lying on the wooden floor of the attic. When she sat she got a stab of pain from her back. She could feel cloth wrapped around her shoulders, inside her shirt, as a makeshift bandage. Sterra looked over at the two elves who were with her, Taosh and Kien. Kien's wound was wide but shallow. They hadn't noticed that she was awake yet.

Sterra crawled over to them. "Would you like me to heal your wound," asked Sterra.

Their heads jerked around in surprise, they hadn't heard her approach. Kien was the first to speak, "Can you?"

Sterra nodded and scooted closer. "So, you're Sterra, right? The midget with a big rep? You've been out for half an hour. Jacker and my brother went out to find more of the Force and to see if they survived," said Taosh.

Sterra placed her hands on Kien's wound and summoned her magic. When she felt it gather in her palms and chest, she sent it out through her fingers, probing the wound to its extent. Already she could sense the tiny life forms of the bacteria beginning to grow. More magic, visible as a blue-green energy, drifted from her fingertips as she killed the bacteria. She then focused on the edges of the wound, slowly encouraging them to grow and speed up the process of healing. She heard a gasp from Taosh as the skin began to stretch and cover the wound. Eventually, the skin met in the middle, and all that was left as a reminder was a pale patch flesh.

Sterra moved to sit beside Taosh and asked, "Are you wounded?"

Taosh nodded and gestured to her arm where a shallow slash mark stretched from her elbow to her shoulder. Sterra gently took her arm and probed it with magic. There was a piece of shrapnel in the wound. Slowly Sterra eased it out. It must have hurt Taosh, but she remained stoic and silent. Then, Sterra brought the skin together to close the wound.

Outside, there came the sound of footsteps on the roof. Immediately Sterra, Kien, and Taosh bolted to a hiding place and drew their batons and weapons. The window swung open and Sterra tensed where she was under a table. But then they heard Jacker's voice, " Alright, we're coming in. I'd really prefer it if nobody hit me over the head with a baton. That means, you, Sterra."

Sterra's muscles relaxed and she crawled out from under the table, a blush spreading across her face. Kien and Taosh also crawled out from their hidden shadows. Jacker crawled in through the window and helped four other officers in through the window. Maosh climbed through last. The first newcomer had curly blond hair with bright purple eyes and a wounded leg. Her name Henna. She was a fellow newbie in the same unit as Sterra. The second officer through the window was a newbie form another unit. He was tall with fair hair and blue eyes. His name was Athon. He wasn't wounded. The next into the attic was a badly wounded senior officer, Athon's Mentor. Sterra recognized the final newcomer as Ritz, an officer from another unit. Ritz had a gash above her right temple. They entered in silence, from the solemnity of what they all knew but couldn't seem to speak of or the fear of being found, Sterra wasn't sure. Jacker motioned for her to come forward. He had a bleeding patch of skin on his left shoulder.

Jacken spoke to the newcomers, "Once everyone is healed up I want the seniors to talk. Sterra, sorry to put you on the spot, but will you deal with their wounds, please?"

Sterra nodded and walked over to Athon's Mentor, who's name, she now recalled, as Paydon, and laid a gentle palm on his chest. His wound was hard, it was both deep and large, not to mention the bits of gravel and shrapnel Sterra had to extract from it. After Sterra had healed the rest of the officers, she sat down to rest. Normally, Sterra didn't use magic much, and was thankful she didn't need to, and her sudden surge of magic activities had tired her out. The senior officers left the room to go talk about what was happening. For some reason, the other newbies and juniors took it upon themselves to talk among themselves as well. They chose where Sterra was sitting as a gathering point, for some strange reason that Sterra wished they had not decided upon. She just wanted to sleep.

Maosh was the first to speak, saying, "What the heck's going on?" Maosh always worked a more colorful word into every sentence by some miraculous talent.

Taosh glared at him for a moment, as though angry he could ask something so stupid, before replying, "Well, it's obvious, isn't it? They want to kill us all."

Maosh returned his sister's glare in full and said, "I know that. What I want to know is why, you idiot."

"Who cares why? It won't matter if we're dead. And don't you ever look in a mirror?"

After this, a sudden quiet descended on the room, as the twins realized they had been fighting publicly. "Actually, finding out why is very important," said Henna. She continued, "If we don't know why they tried to slaughter us, then we don't know who we can trust. If we don't know who to trust, then we don't know what to do next. Therefore, we will never be able to make a knowledgeable decision. I rest my case."

Another spate of silence ensued, in which a lone snicker could be heard. Sterra twisted her head to view the author of the noise and saw Athon. He was looking at them all rather scornfully, his nose and eyes and mouth appeared quite sinister to the other newbies and juniors. With the same look still on his face, Athon addressed Henna, " 'I rest my case'," said Athon in a mocking voice. "Really? Where do you think you are? At the Newbie Camp?"

The Newbie Camp was the place where newbies-to-be were sent for five months to train prior becoming a newbie in a unit. "I don't know if you've noticed or not, but we were just targeted, and it was just sheer luck we weren't killed like the rest of our units. Grow up, already!"

After the last insult, Athon marched over to a corner and sat in it, brooding like a mother hen. Yet _another_ silence swept the room. Sterra turned to the other newbs. They looked shocked and frightened. Athon had brought them to a harsh reality. Suddenly, Sterra found herself wanting to help them, despite her exhaustion and the pain in her shoulders. For a moment no words came. Then, as Sterra looked into their frightened eyes, somehow through some unknown instinct all turned towards her, she said, "Don't mind him, we all deal with this in different ways. He's just a little frightened. Don't be discouraged, we may be newbs, but we are Force Newbs. And, besides, we have four of the best senior officers, we shouldn't sell ourselves short."

"Hey, we're juniors, not newbs!" That was Maosh, his ruby eyes shining like twin flames, and pointing to himself and his sister.

"That's the spirit!" Further conversation ensued, but Sterra withdrew from it, confident that the other newbs weren't going to just give up on the fight.

Eventually, Sterra slipped into a light slumber. She had dreams that, later, she could not remember. But in her dreams there were whispers of a forbidden Clan, an unknown heir, and a shining kingdom of gold magic.

**i realize that this chapter is rather short, but i knew i needed to post more chapters, because i haven't gotten a single review at the time i write this, which as everyone knows is very annoying**

**ok here are my ground rules that we all obey**

**1 if you want to send me flames then pm me, do not subject others to your annoying hotheaded babbling**

**2 the more reviews this story gets the more attention i will pay to it. **

**3 this is way au it almost isn't related to artemis fowl, except i got some ideas from there, but the plot is my own and the little world that this ff revolves in is too**

**4 if you have ideas to make this ff more amazing or interesting or whatever, feel free to tell me of your grand schemes**

**5 if you can tell where this plot is headed do not spoil it for anyone else, although i admit i might be making it too transparent**

**that about sums up my rules this ff was actually based off of a mixture of beyonders, artemis fowl, and the kind of books where the author constructs an interesting make believe world in which to weave their plot into**


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